Folkies joined jazz aficionados at the NAC‘s 4th stage last Thursday to experience a rare cross-genre collaboration featuring beloved Ottawa singer-songwriter Lynn Miles performing with a band of top jazz players lead by Petr Cancura. The concert was the second show in Petr Cancura’s Crossroads series presented as part of theWinter Jazz Fest and NAC Presents. The […]

Mr. Bean meets Clue in The Murder Room, a thoroughly silly send-up of the British murder mystery now playing at the Ottawa Little Theatre through to January 30. Any night of theatre asks the audience to bring the believer in them, a readiness to entertain a greater range of possibilities than we do in everyday […]

Last night The Wooden Sky rolled in from Toronto to play one ferociously good show at the NAC 4th stage. The good news is they’re playing again tonight and there may still be some tickets available. Dubbed The Wooden Sky Holiday Show there was plenty of holiday spirit without any of the old familiar carols. […]

I’ll be straight with you I tend to be wary of all things Christmas-themed. It’s must be all those movies and holiday albums rife with over-the-top sentimentality and lush superficiality. Luckily, there’s no need to worry about any of that walking into the Ottawa Little Theatre to see A Christmas Story. More than anything this […]

Where can you get a nice dose of knowledge in one evening, is more social than watching another documentary on Netflix, and costs about the same as a night out anywhere? Whether you’re looking to break the routine, start a project, or have your eyes opened to something new, chances are you’ll find what you’re […]

When NAC Presents recently announced its season lineup, Petr Cancura’s Crossroads project stood out right away. A concert series within the concert series that is NAC Presents, Crossroads is a genre-crossing something special that’s been cooked up to mark Presents’ 5th anniversary. So here it is. Take three of the city’s best-loved singer-songwriters, say Ian Tamblyn, […]

Now playing at the Ottawa Little Theatre, Terrence Rattigan’s Flare Path is a moving drama that pulls you in with an impressively human portrayal of war. Klaas Van Weringh directs this poignant production with heart, humour, and a few surprises. Rattigan’s understated script, inspired by his experiences as an RCAF air gunner sidesteps big battle […]

What do you when you’ve played in a band so intense it played itself into a hiatus and even your solo records have grown more and more raucous on you? If you’re Steven Lambke of Constantines and Baby Eagle fame you do a 180 and a write a record cloaked in the intimacy and hushed […]

Hard-touring country-noir songstress Lindi Ortega rolls into Ottawa this week to play not one but two shows as part of the NAC Presents series. With one of the most bewitching voices around and a sound that captures everything good from the golden age of country music it’s easy to see why so many people came […]

Town & Train, the debut horror novel from local author James K. Moran is one ride you won’t want to miss. The story takes us to Brandon, Ontario, a sleepy town full of secrets and villains hiding in plain sight, where people watch hockey and work blue collar jobs, and are big on dive bars and […]

Last Thursday Old Man Luedecke came to town to play the first show in the NAC Presents Canadian music series. The folksy, banjo-picking songwriter brought a sold out crowd to the fourth stage for a night of honest-to-goodness roots music. A people’s poet in the line of Woody Guthrie, Luedecke is a seeker who’s refined […]

“We want to find a space where artists can conduct an experiment where if we lived in some utopian society where people can go a show if they want to and numbers and capitalism is as irrelevant as we can make it, then what do we get? What musical experiences do we get? What kind […]

Opera Lyra’s spirited take on Rossini’s classic comic opera The Barber of Seville has something for everyone. The production brims with a cartoon zaniness and uninhibited joy. From the chorus in their skivvies to the slapstick pranks played on the villain Bartolo there’s plenty of silliness and laugh out loud moments. Then there’s the music, with […]

Two years, hundreds of hours, and plenty of love and money later Lora Bidner is all set for the release of To the North, her impressive full length debut. The Ottawa-raised art-folk songwriter is celebrating with a release show at Live on Elgin on September 26. Saturday’s release show will be a rare chance to […]

If you’re new to opera The Barber is as good as it gets for a gateway. Just ask Opera Lyra’s artistic director Timothy Vernon who says “It’s a feel good opera, it’s a fun story, nobody dies and everybody laughs.” Not to mention the gorgeous melodies that are probably familiar even if you don’t know […]